Bengal's literary chameleon

By Chhandashi Bandopadhayay

1 November 2012 — 3:00am

SUNIL GANGOPADHYAY POET, WRITER 7-9-1934 — 23-10-2012

THE Bengali community around the globe is deeply saddened by the sudden death of the legendary Bengali poet and writer Sunil Gangopadhyay. One of the finest authors in contemporary literature, Gangopadhyay was also the president of the National Literature Academy of India (Sahitya Akademi). He was 78.

Although throughout his 60-year literary career, Gangopadhyay wrote exclusively in Bengali, his works have been translated into many languages.

Bengali poet and writer Sunil Ganghopadhyay.

Gangopadhyay is regarded as one of Bengal's most distinguished poets since Rabindranath Tagore, and called poetry his first love. However, he also wrote more than 200 books, delving successfully into many literary genres - short stories, novels, travelogues and children's fiction - leaving generations of readers in India and Bangladesh spell-bound with his creativity.

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He became almost the conscience of contemporary Bengali society, prompting his readers to question the morality, beliefs, double standards and hypocrisy of their society.

Gangopadhyay was born in Faridpur district (now in Bangladesh), but his family moved to Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta) before the 1947 partition of India. He received a master's degree in Bengali literature from the University of Calcutta in 1954.

The year before that, Gangopadhyay had launched a poetry magazine, Krittibas, which became an experimental platform for a new generation of poets, creating new forms, themes, rhythms and words. Gangopadhyay remained associated with Krittibas, and committed to its welfare, all his life.

Later he became a regular contributor of poetry, short stories, essays and novels to the various publications of the Ananda Bazar group, a major publishing house in Kolkata.

His association with this group lasted until his death.

His poetry, though intellectual in essence, touches readers with its profound emotion. He was part of the Hungryalist literary movement in the 1960s in Kolkata that produced a poetry of revolution, alienation, outrage and death that challenged and changed the style of Bengali literature, language and vocabulary.

Among many literary awards, Gangopadhyay won India's prestigious National Academy of Letters Award (Sahitya Akademi Award) in 1985 for a work of historical fiction, Sei Somoy (''Those Days''). Another historical novel, Prothom Alo (''First Light'') was also a best seller.

His novel Purbo-Paschim (''East-West'') is the story of three generations of a Bengali family living through the partition of India and its aftermath - the Bangladesh war and the Naxalite movement.

Gangopadhyay also wrote numerous works under three pseudonyms, adopting writing styles so different from each other that it is almost impossible to imagine they are the work of one author.

They included a series of romantic novels written under the pen name Nil Lohit that proved hugely popular. The main character was Nil Lohit or Nilu, a carefree unemployed 27-year-old who exerts immense fascination for middle-class youth, with his fondness for travelling into the city of lost directions, his romantic nature, and his being ever ready to fall in love.

He also wrote a series of literary criticisms under the pseudonym Sanatan Pathak (which sometimes included harsh criticism of his own works!) and essays under the name Nil Upadhyay.

Under his own name, Gangopadhyay wrote a series of adventure stories about two fictional characters - Kakababu (uncle), a crippled adventurer and detective, and his nephew - who became legendary in Bengali children's literature. Readers loved the stories of the two-man team, some set in India's Andamans archipelago and some in the thick jungles of Africa.

Several of his works have been made into films by eminent directors such as Satyajit Ray. A recent film based on his novel Moner Manush (''The Man of the Heart'') won the award for best film at the 41st International Film Festival of India held at Goa in 2010.

After taking over the presidency of the National Literature Academy of India, Gangopadhyay launched projects to promote Indian literature around the world, to translate works from one Indian language to another, and to encourage communication between writers across the language barriers in India.

A die-hard atheist, Gangopadhyay remained fearless and unswerving in the face of controversies he encountered on several occasions.

In 2001, he visited Melbourne at the invitation of a group of 10 Bengali families sharing their love and enthusiasm for Bengali literature. They held a literary workshop in his honour to herald the birth of an organisation in Melbourne known as The Bengali Literary Society (Bangla Sahitya Sansad).

While paying tribute to the memory of Gangopadhyay, India's President Pranab Mukherjee observed: "One of Bengal's brightest literary stars has been extinguished. This loss will be extremely difficult to overcome. Sunil Gangopadhyay was one of the greatest Bengali intellectuals."

Gangopadhyay is survived by his wife Swati, his son Souvik and a grandchild.